The changes were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the the primary sensory motor region of the brain.

Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded cognition - for example, just thinking about running, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running.

Put a large Post It note in the middle of the board; write your topic or tentative book title on it.

Write related topics on smaller sticky notes.Use one color for this part of the exercise. Just stick them all over the board. Don’t worry about where you place them , or about organizing them, unless you are certain they are related topics; then you can group them together. This is the “brain dump” phase. Put everything you can possibly think of onto the board. Free associate. Fill the board to capacity. When you think you are done, think again.

Make a list. Steven Sondheim spoke of making a list of all the words that might apply to the song he was writing. That list, SS said, revealed hidden connections he hadn’t seen before. There’s no reasons that approach can’t work for a writer.

What New Year's Resolutions are you making? Oddly enough, my resolutions are the same as my resolutions for 2012. The only changes are that nowadays I keep my lists and journals in Evernote, so that I can manage my lists and writing wherever I happen to be.

Big tip: create your own "top three" resolutions, and track them carefully. Add notes to your calendar so that you don't forget them.

So test the waters with two or three horror short stories. Create a mailing list, and put the link in the back matter of your ebooks. Once you’ve written three horror short stories, make one permanently free. At this stage, you’ll know whether you want to write a horror novel, and you’ll have some readers.

I cannot recommend Alison Weir with any more vigor. This is a great place to start. If Mantel elevates fiction to a religious experience, Weir elevates history to a fine art. And her footnotes are a treat, second only to those of science writer Mary Roach.

Jill’s been a friend for years. She started out as a business writer, now she’s a ghostwriter. She makes an amazing living, recording people’s lives and memories. Her cell phone’s her primary writing tool.

She’s never without her phone camera. She says: “I usually take at least 20 photos on every shopping trip, especially if I’m in a larger city. When you ask someone whether you can take a photo of them, or their place of business, it gives you a chance to hand out your card… AND get their email address so you can send them the image.”

Integrated messaging

Quip combines documents and messages into a single chat-like “thread” of updates. You can discuss the document you are editing directly in the thread without having to shuffle back and forth from email to talk about it, and all messages show up in real-time. Your Quip home screen has an inbox, enabling you to easily see the documents that have been shared with you, as well as new edits and messages.

Outline The Book You’re Gonna Rewrite

Now it’s time to take that outline and reoutline so that you have the book you intend to end up with. Why do we do this? Because it’ll save you a whole lot of work later on. If you just dive into your edits like a drunk going to town on a pie-eating contest, everything will end up far messier than you like.

1. Become an idea-generating machine.

Ideas are currency for freelance writers. We need a constant flow of ideas from: conversations with others, our personal reading, research for specific projects – we collect bright and shiny ideas from anywhere and everywhere. Even from TV. One of my friends is a lifestyle blogger, who admits she gets most of her ideas from TV, and press releases.

5. Journal. Similar to “write it down” above, but with a little more depth. Journaling (whether it’s in a paper journal or online doesn’t matter) helps you explore different areas of your life that you don’t think about much. And this exploration might allow you to find some things on your mind that you didn’t realize were there, some things that can be eliminated or pursued. And just getting these thoughts into some kind of a journal is a way of getting them out of your mind as well.

Who are you writing for?
Who is your ideal reader? (Here’s a hint: your ideal reader is the one who converts into a customer!) If you only have one ideal reader profile, you probably don’t need a column for this, but if you have more than one, be sure you know which reader each post will appeal to.